Remembering the Communal Violence of 1950 in Hooghly

Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury

Abstract

Are borders real or metaphors is the question addressed in this article. While arguing that borders are not just lines in the landscape but that they actively shape the societies and cultures they enclose, this article unravels the stories of three Muslim women of Hooghly district of West Bengal, an eastern state of India. The main purpose of the study is to enquire about how women negotiate borders — borders of sect, community, patriarchy, and of conflicts not only in their own lnad but also in an alien land away from their homeland. The essay analyzes the self-representation of the Muslims once displaced and focuses on their narratives of victimhood, which tends to be framed in rhetoric of Hindu-Muslim differences.